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Before reading this article, please note this trigger warning. This article discusses topics such as racism, slaverly, code-switching, discrimination by means of race and ethnicity, student punishment, and hypersexualization. If any of these topics may make you uncomfrotable, consider opting-out of this article.
African-American Vernacular English (i.e., AAVE or Ebonics) is a dialect of Standard American English (i.e., SAE) primarily used by African-Americans, originating from English settlers shipping slaves from various regions of Africa to serve on cotton plantations. The vernacular is distinguished for its use of the invariant be, double-negatives, lack of subject-verb agreement, omissions of the auxiliary do, and copula be (Mufwene). AAVE also employs unique stress patterns, such as skipping the final consonant, the pronunciation of th, and a long-drawn ah sound to vocalize vowels (Rickford). Nevertheless, there has been an extensive debate to determine if AAVE is a legitimate vernacular due to linguistic contradictions with SAE. Consequently, African-American children feel immense pressure to switch to AAVE一 a process labeled code-switching (i.e., changing a dialect to fit the climate or context). African-American children appear to be code-switching from AAVE to SAE at young ages due to contradictions between the dialects, inadequate social and economic resources, resistance from educators, and inappropriate use from non-native speakers.
African-American Vernacular English originates from a rich culture and features a distinct dialect; however, the vernacular has not been without its controversies. As an introduction, the prime demographic of AAVE is African-Americans, Black Americans, African-Canadians, and Black Canadians; linguistics considers it a mixture of Southern Standard American English and West African languages. English indentured servants, whom African slaves may have communicated with during the slavery era, used multiple components found in modern AAVE. AAVE also contains attributes from West African dialects, such as the lack of a th sound and simplifications of actions ("We be walkin" rather than "We are walking"); AAVE has been regarded as a creole (combination of languages during the slavery era) by linguistics (Rickford). Due to its origins, AAVE utilizes distinctive pronunciations, morphology laws, and memorable diction present in modern-day slang. The lingo in this dialect, also known as ‘Black’ words, can be found in 'phat' (fat), 'bling-bling' (expensive jewelry), and even 'kitchen' (the kinky hair at the nape of the neck); other terms, such as ‘han’ (hand), ‘baf’ (bath), or ‘ama/imma’ (I’m going to), are due to the elimination of the final consonant (Rickford). The invariant or habitual be is an essential grammatical construction in AAVE; it expresses a continual action ("She be workin' all day" means she is always working all day). Additionally, AAVE also omits the present tense (Rickford). However, AAVE has experienced negative responses from linguistics, the educational system, and an English-oriented society. It is considered unintelligent, and in the words of John R. Rickford, “a legacy of slavery”. Although the vernacular has various similarities with English languages, such as double negatives and double modules, it is deemed inferior to SAE. As a result, despite its intricate grammar regulations, vocabularian influence on pop culture, and disgusted terminology, AAVE encounters immense repercussions due to inconsistencies with SAE.
African-American children who use African-American Vernacular English may also code-switch to Standard American English because of the contradictions between the dialects, an absence of guidance from other African-American teachers, and increasing contextual awareness. To begin, AAVE and SAE, despite similarities due to their origins, display differences in grammatical laws. As an illustration, unlike SAE, AAVE employs the elimination of certain vowels, pronunciations, and consonants; multiple auxiliary verbs can replace SAE phrases (Rickford). Hence, children from a young age may acknowledge the contrasting features of AAVE and SAE. With this in mind, there are few African-American teachers in the classroom to guide African-American students who use AAVE or actively code-switch. According to a Washington Post article by Lyndsey Layton, the number of Black teachers in the United States drastically decreased from 2002 to 2012; the cities examined were Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Students who are racially paired with teachers perform better academically; teachers of color serve as a guide to students of color, who have higher possibilities of poverty and low academic resources (Layton). Simultaneously, African-American students are code-switching to SAE at younger ages, a habit that lasts throughout childhood ー and into adulthood. While African-American children who speak AAVE do not struggle with a language deficit, research has shown they develop contextual awareness of when to code-switch (Harris and Schroeder). Further studies have shown that as African-American children age, their usage of AAVE decreases; however, their literacy outcomes are equal to European-American students by age demographic (Harris and Schroeder). To summarize, the contradictions between AAVE and SAE can lead to students eventually suppressing AAVE in communication due to a lack of teachers or guidance to assist them in their academic journeys as African-Americans.
African-American children may avoid African-American Vernacular English because of inadequate educational resources, socioeconomic status, the effects of slavery, and higher rates of academic punishments. Quoting the American Psychological Association, "Socioeconomic status (SES) is the social standing or class of an individual or group; it is often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation." African-Americans historically have a lower SES; this can lead to higher rates of poverty and lower chances of post-secondary educational credentials than European-Americans (Harris and Schroeder). SES also contributes to African-American children historically performing more poorly than European-American children on standardized testing; studies on this topic tend to employ participants from drastically diverse SES backgrounds, creating the false sense that speakers of AAVE possess language deficiencies. African-American children may not receive the same parental guidance (due to necessary maintenance of employment) in literary or vocabulary skills. African-Americans are in these positions due to the United States slave trade, segregation, and modern-day laws. Although the 13th - 15th Amendments were steps toward Black liberation, African-Americans still endured unequal rights, lynchings, terrorism, and immense setbacks; we can still observe these hardships through SES, as discussed prior. Richard Nixon (the 37th U.S. President, famous for the Watergate scandal) launched a war on drugs to enforce drug laws; this led to an uptick in arrest and incarceration rates for African-Americans. About eighty percent of federal prisoners are Black or Latino, and Black and Native Americans endure a higher rate of murder by law enforcement than other racial groups (“Race and the Drug War”). African-American students also face much higher rates of academic disciplinary measures, including expulsion, diminishing ー and possibly eliminating ー the chances of higher education. The U.S. News writer Lauren Camera published an article in 2020 describing the disparities in discipline by race; according to said article, Black and other students of color faced exponentially higher rates of lost school days, along with greater chances of learning loss. Dan Losen, a researcher in the article, declares, “These stark disparities in lost instruction explain why we cannot close the achievement gap if we do not close the discipline gap.” As African-American students observe these unfair punishments, they may negatively view AAVE and see it as a threat to their academic futures. In the long-term, African-American students face higher rates of disciplinary measures, lower socioeconomic status, criminalization, and an absence of higher-level education; students may associate these characteristics with AAVE, as it is a defining characteristic of the African-American community, and abstain from its usage.
African-American students endure resistance to African-American Vernacular English from the bias of teachers, failed legal action, and overrepresentation in the learning disability system. Teachers statistically consider SAE superior to AAVE and reflect that in their treatment of African-American students. According to a study from Champion et al. with 136 pre-service education majors (majority European American women), eighty-five percent of participants viewed AAVE negatively and expected poor performances from speakers of the vernacular. Teachers may also cite the deficit theory, in which studies comparing African-American and European American students display how white students perform better; however, these studies fail to take SES into account or consider the background of said students (Harris and Schroeder). The teaching system has also shown resistance through various court cases and abandoned legal action to cater to AAVE speakers. The Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School children et al., v. the Ann Arbor School District case of 1979 addressed the discriminatory treatment of AAVE speakers, who faced higher possibilities of special or remedial education along with unfair penalization; this trial was in favor of the children, but the district failed to take accountability for their harm against African-American students (Harris and Schroeder). In 1996, the Oakland Unified School District of California recognized Ebonics as the primary language of its majority African-American students and planned to adjust their SAE curriculum accordingly; this decision underwent extreme backlash (Rickford). To follow, special and remedial education systems overrepresent African-American students along with other minority groups. Champion et al. note that African-Americans are overrepresented in special education by five times as much as Asian or Pacific Islander students and over twice the amount of European American students. When teachers have low expectations for speakers of AAVE due to bias discussed prior, these students receive fewer resources to improve their academic performance; this outlook can lead to higher placement in special education, and the cycle continues. As a result, African-American students continually face resistance in the education system; this is due to negative views of AAVE, inaction from legal school boards, and the overrepresentation of AAVE speakers in special or remedial education.
Image 1. Source: Smokoski, Hannah L. “Voicing the Other: Mock AAVE on Social Media.” The Graduate Center, CUNY Academic Works, 2016, academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/view
content.cgi?article=1706&context=gc_etds.
The rise of African-American Vernacular English in social media has led to non-native speakers using AAVE for a comical effect, perpetuating racial stereotypes, and constructing a secondary identity. The rise of mock AAVE on social media platforms disheartens African-American students who witness their classmates using the vernacular as an entertaining tool. For example, in Image (1), an Instagram user employs mock AAVE to express gratitude towards a friend. The original poster uses three distinct voices, switching from SAE (‘One year... laugh) to mock AAVE (‘Shoo it’s... kno.’), ending once again with SAE (‘Thankful .. love you’) (Smokosi); this is code-switching, but the context contrasts from African-American code-switching. Paraphrasing Smokosi, the speaker is stylizing AAVE for a comical effect depending on their intended audience, and context is indispensable in interpreting voicing (Smokos). African-American children may feel inclined to code-switch into SAE to appeal to non-Black classmates and feel included in the ridicule -- at least, at the moment, they are not the ones ridiculed. In contrast, non-native AAVE speakers may also construct an identity reliant on African-American stereotypes. The “Black” identity is one of hypersexualization, urbanity, toughness, and criminalization; this stark contrast to mainstream European American values attracts non-native speakers as a form of rebellion (Smokosi). Regardless of the intentions of said youth, their actions perpetuate stereotypes of criminalization, sexualization, adultification, illiteracy, masculinity, and the dehumanization of African-Americans; In the words of Smokosi, “Black style is viewed as the embodiment of a particular machismo, the object of racialized desire, and, simultaneously, of radicalized fear” Or, “They think, ‘I’m kinda scared of them, but I want to look like them because they’re cool.’” The 'radicalness' of AAVE is an excuse to be uneducated on its history or the oppression of its native speakers. Adding onto the construction of Black identity, non-native speakers may selectively choose certain aspects of AAVE to be appropriate. As a model, European-American youth may participate in the Black culture of hip hop. The cultural and societal pressure from engaging in hip hop plays a crucial role in selecting factors of AAVE to project their hybrid identities; to cite, said ‘White Hip Hoppers’ refrain from the use of the invariant be, one of the most prominent AAVE features (Smokosi). European-American hip-hoppers may feel that using such an iconic AAVE trait implies some claim of identity; the question lies: why avoid this specific aspect if one has used other significant elements of Black culture? The faux-Black identity relies on African-American stereotypes cloaked in artificial admiration. Thus, its native speakers are subject to more racial prejudice rather than acceptance of the culture. African-American children cannot feel comfortable speaking AAVE, as non-Black AAVE speakers use the dialect for humor, engage in negative racial stereotypes, and formulate hybrid Black identities.
To close, as African-American Vernacular English rises in popularity among non-native speakers, heavily aided by social media platforms, its original users must adjust their views towards the dialect. African-American children seem to code-switch from AAVE to SAE in their childhood years from differences in the dialects, socioeconomic obstacles, hesitancy from educational systems, and cultural appropriation from non-Black classmates. AAVE renews its status as secondary to SAE and induces harm to African-American children in the educational system. This erasure of AAVE from native speakers reflects the erasure of the Black diaspora from American culture, an issue that continues to be observed by the linguistic and African-American/Black communities alike.
Works Cited
Camera, Lauren. “School Suspension Data Shows Glaring Disparities in Discipline by Race.” U.S. News, 13 October 2020, https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-10
-13/school-suspension-data-shows-glaring-disparities-in-discipline-by-race.
Champion, Tempii B, et al. “Future Educators' Perceptions of African American Vernacular English (AAVE).” Academia.edu, Online Journal of Education Research, vol. 1, no. 5, 18 Aug. 2012, pp. 80 - 89. Online Journal of Education Research, www.academia.edu
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Harris, Yvette R., and Valarie M. Schroeder. “Language Deficits or Differences: What We Know about African American Vernacular English in the 21st Century.” International Education Studies, vol. 6, no. 4, Jan. 2013, pp. 194–204. EBSCO host, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ106 7596.
Layton, Lyndsey. “The number of black teachers has dropped in nine U.S. cities.” The Washington Post, 15 September 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-number-of-
black-teachers-has-dropped-in-nine-us-cities/2015/09/15/9e86878e-5be6-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html.
Mufwene, Salikoko Sangol. “Ebonics.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 August 2017, https://www.
britannica.com/topic/Ebonics.
“Race and the Drug War.” Drug Policy Alliance, https://drugpolicy.org/issues/race-and-drug-war.
Rickford, John R. “What is Ebonics (African American English)?” Linguistic Society of America, https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/what-ebonics-african-american-english.
Smokoski, Hannah L. “Voicing the Other: Mock AAVE on Social Media.” The Graduate Center, CUNY Academic Works, 2016, academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1706&context=gc_etds.
“Socioeconomic status.” American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/topics/socio
economic-status/.
About The Author:
Bethania d. is a rising junior from California. Follow her @nonotbethany :). She wrote this essay for her English class and has been interested in essay-writing since. Another fun fact, she is also insanely good at Just Dance 3” on the Wii.
Cover page by Seeun Kim
Editing by Poorna Prakash
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